Month: January 2013

So, I’m running again. I got SO discouraged the last time I made a real effort because of the HORRIBLE, PAINFUL, DEBILITATING shin splints that I just… gave up. I felt like I should have just been able to do it. It shouldn’t have to be that hard. It’s just putting one foot in front of the other till you get to the end. It’s not supposed to hurt that bad.

But it did. And when Ben suggested that I get professionally fit for running shoes I threw up my hands and stubbornly refused because NOTHING WAS GOING TO WORK. I HAD ALREADY TRIED ALL THE THINGS.

And so it went for almost a year.

And finally, after watching him train his broken body (back surgery, multiple knee surgeries, people telling him running was out of the question) to a 1/2 marathon, I listened to Ben and went and got professionally fit for running shoes.

And I ran. And my legs were all, YEAH! LET’S DO THIS SOME MORE.

I’m right back where I started, and that does suck, but yesterday I finally restarted Couch to 5K. I’ve listened to Ben and am stretching before and REALLY well after each run. I listened to my sister-in-law Melyssa and am getting over my ego of needing to better my time with each run and am starting out SLOW. But I’m running and my legs feel GREAT. I’m going to punch that 5K right in the face and then I’m just going to keep on running.

When we were opening gifts for Christmas Ben told me, “One of your gifts is a weekend away in Pismo. Pick a weekend and I’ll set it all up.”

It was awesome. We usually stay at a certain hotel but it’s kind of silly expensive so we decided to stay at the Best Western Shore Cliff and I think it was a great choice! Going down I had one plan: RELAX. We spent most of the time in the hotel room, only really leaving to eat. PERFECT.

Cassidy rode down to Pismo with us Friday evening and was picked up by Mary, her boyfriend Elisio and one of Cassidy’s BFFs Mallory and they continued on to Orange County to go to Knotts Berry Farm Saturday.

Here are some highlights!

I woke up to this view Saturday morning.

It was GORGEOUS! I was worried because the night before it was COLD. Like, two jackets and a scarf IN THE HOTEL room cold when we first got there. But the weather was perfect. We opened the door and the sun reflected off the ocean and warmed our room enough to keep the sliding glass door open all day.

We went down to breakfast there was an automatic pancake maker. I was like, WE NEED ONE OF THESE OMG! LIKE SERIOUSLY! TODAY!

It’s $3,500. So apparently that’s out of the question. Ben’s priorities are whack.

We ate a lot of this clam chowder in a bread bowl from Splash Cafe. It is the best thing you will ever put in your mouth and the entire reason we went to Pismo instead of some place closer. You can order it and have it sent directly to your home. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Saturday we got cute and went to Steamers for dinner where I NOMed on the second steak in 24 hours. It was a good food trip.

I woke up to this seriously beautiful sunrise on Sunday.

It was the perfect weekend. Relaxing, lazy and full of good food and my handsome husband.

Number of days sick: 3.5
Number of pounds lost: 6.5
Number of times I wished I’d just DIE ALREADY: 76
Number of solid meals I ate over 3.5 days: 3
Number of solid meals I kept down over 3.5 days: 0
Gallons of water consumed over 3.5 days: 3
Gallons of water kept down over 3.5 days: 0
Number of times I dry heaved and wished with all my heart that something, ANYTHING, would come out: 849
Number of hours spent sleeping on the couch with dogs: 63
Number or house spent on the couch watching HGTV: All the rest of them.

For the record, I did have a flu shot. Apparently there is some mutant monster flu that wasn’t included in the stupid vaccine this year. THANKFULLY, Cassidy showed symptoms but it never progressed into anything.

I feel REALLY HORRIBLE because I just didn’t have it in me to get on the plane to Arizona Friday to go to support Ben during his first half marathon. It broke my heart to have to drive away from the airport when I dropped him off but the entire way there I fought and fought to not throw up in the car. At one point I almost lost it but managed to hold it off till after dropping him. Even worse than having to leave him was the thought of having to leave him with his last image being me hurling in the car.

I finally stopped throwing up yesterday late morning but then it all started to come out the other end, if you know what I mean. I mean diarrhea. Every 30-45 minutes. Till 6:00AM this morning. I woke up exhausted at 9:30AM this morning with two hungry dogs staring down at me. I could have slept for another hour or two or seven but they were like, nope. Feed us, Sleeping Beauty! And here’s a fart to let you know how serious I am! Usually Ben gets up with them no later than 8:00AM on the weekends so they let me sleep in quite a bit which was nice of them. Well, except for the farting part.

I’m still pretty tired. You know that normal after flu hangover you get where you are low on energy and tired and just kind of lethargic till you can get a solid day or two of real food and liquid into your body? Yeah, that. So now I’m going to bed and resting my poor body. If anybody around you is showing flu symptoms, I highly suggest freebasing vitamin C and investing in a bubble suit. Stat.

2012 has not been a banner blogging year for me. Mostly because I feel like NO TIME! TO DO THIS! JOB! TEENAGER! HUSBAND! DOGS! LIFE STUFF!

There’s always funny stuff that happens that I feel like I should share with you guys but then I sit down to write in and then SIDETRACKED! PINTEREST! FACEBOOK! READ ALL THE BLOGS! NOW IT’S TIME TO SHUT THE LAPTOP AND I HAVE NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT!

Like the other day on the way to breakfast I was telling Ben how I want to be a Jedi Knight for Halloween one year. I want the long flowing cape that glides perfectly over the ground.

Me: They must have very good blood repellent too because Anakin totally killed all those sand people on Tatooine for torturing his mom to death and NO BLOOD.
Ben: He killed them with a lightsaber.
Me: Well, yeah.
Ben: They cauterize the wound with heat! You know how they work, right!?
Me: Seriously.
Ben: WHAT!? YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN SCIENCE, ANNA!?
Me: *blink blink*
Ben: IT’S SCIENCE!

Anyway! I only have three real New Years resolutions.

1) Blog more. Write. Don’t write. Post pictures. Post conversations. Just POST. SOMETHING. OFTEN(er).
2) Live a more healthy lifestyle. Run a 5K, run a half marathon. Run them with my husband.
3) Take more time off. Romantic weekends with Ben. Girl’s weekends with Cassidy. Fun family trips. You get the idea. More QUALITY down time.

So here we go with one!

CHRISTMAS! IN PICTURES!

There were lots of presents. I was really lucky and got to open them with people I love.

These people!

My mom opened her present first which I wrapped, then put in a box which I wrapped. I love doing that kind of stuff. It’s her Gryffindor scarf that I started knitting last Christmas and I was a little scared if she didn’t get the ACTUAL scarf this year I’d be written out of the will. I finished it the night before. WHEW!

Which is a prefect segue to one of my gifts which is a center pull ball yarn winder. LOVE IT! Ben and I were pretty tight with the budget this year because our “big present” to each other was a new TV that we got earlier in the month. But he hit a HOME RUN on all the gifts. I’m not going to list them all because I kind of hate those kinds of posts. If that’s your thing, cool! LIST AWAY! But I feel like kind of a bragging asshole. So yeah, BALL WINDER!

Cassidy got a lot of Teenager Stuff. Mostly clothes and books because cloths are books are serious business.

Ben got a cat litter box! (There was a console racing game inside!) (Don’t worry, I used an empty box and wrapped the game then taped it inside the box then wrapped the box!) (PS – Sometimes I still question how I managed to find a man to marry me.)

Cameron got a new Retina Display MacBook Pro! Which he paid for half of! And my mom and he bought a month ago! Then she wrapped it and made him wait a month to open it! My mom is notorious for doing that. She is a MASOCHIST! At this point he pretty much stopped realizing anything else in the world was going on because: NEW PRETTIES!

Kumo and Danica were spoiled too. My mom had one of her friends buy them a bunch of treats from a really fancypants store in Carmel.

And we got them some small bones to enjoy.

Before we opened presents I fed everybody Reid Family Tacos, homemade refried beans and Mexican rice. It was kind of cool because my dad in Oceanside made Reid Family Tacos and my cousin in North Carolina made Reid Family Tacos and even though we weren’t together, we shared a family favorite! After presents we ate some homemade apple pie.

OH! And I just can’t leave out the best Christmas gift of all which were these blow up boxing gloves I gave to Ben. We’ve named one set Conflict and one set Resolution. I think they are going to get some good use. 😉

PS – Sorry for the poor quality. Cassidy SMSd me a downgraded version and I wasn’t able to grab the full version before she deleted it. KIDS!